In exactly one year, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will land in theaters, so what can you do to fill the 365-day gap until then? Well, you can watch the previous six ‘Star Wars’ films over and over, or dive into the franchise’s books, video games, and spin-off shows. Or, if you live in Los Angeles, you can see "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back" recreated in a way you’ve never seen before or likely will again.
Jason Reitman is directing a one-night-only live read of ‘Empire Strikes Back’ tonight at The Theatre at Ace Hotel and today the final pieces of the cast have been revealed. And they are as follows:
Luke Skywalker – Aaron Paul
Han Solo – Ellen Page
Princess Leia – Jessica Alba
Darth Vader – JK Simmons
C-3P0 – Stephen Merchant
Lando Calrissian – Dennis Haysbert
Yoda – Kevin Pollak
And yeah, this is awesome. We like the gender switch for Han Solo, because if anyone can equal Harrison Ford’s sarcasm, it’s certainly Ellen Page. “The Han Solo character is fascinating, in that the approach to every other character in ‘Star Wars’ is earnest and kind of sweet and old-fashioned. The heroes are heroes, and the villains are villains. And within this world, we’re introduced to one human being who looks at it all with irony,” Reitman told Entertainment Weekly: “He’s the guy who doesn’t give a crap.”
“With him, we feel like we have an ally in this, and it allows the viewer to get closer to Luke and Leia,” he added. “In casting Han, the most important thing is: who has the most interesting, ironic approach to life? And when I think of that, I think of Ellen Page. She’s a small human being who has the energy to fill Madison Square Garden.” We agree.
Similarly, the nebbish Stephen Merchant is a perfect choice for the similarly bumbling C-3PO, and what we’d give to see JK Simmons as Darth Vader.
If you don’t have tickets for the reading tonight, we’d reckon you’re out of luck, but the evening promises to be something special.
Jason Reitman: nope.
Luke Skywalker – dane dehaan
Han Solo – chris pratt
Princess Leia – Maggie gylenhaal
Lando Calrissian – will smith
Yoda – Morgan Freeman
I LOVE this casting. There isn\’t a male actor alive who could do a better job than a young Harrison Ford as Han Solo so this is the only decent solution: make him a her.
I call bs on Reitman\’s description of Solo. In the end Solo is a teddybear character who pretends he doesn\’t care when in reality he does. There is never any doubt in the audience\’s mind that he will do the "right" thing in the end. Lando, however, is a different animal. The Lando in ESB is the most complex character arguably in all of the SW films. You aren\’t exactly sure what he will do. His motives are murky, complicated. He doesn\’t owe han or the others anything. In fact it is their arrival that puts his whole future in jeopardy. Considering that and adding that the Empire got to Cloud City first, I don\’t blame him for his actions and could have seen him going either direction in the end.
Fair enough.
It\’s not, but what really bugs me about this Daniel, is that he\’s doing it for money. Not for fun. He actually wants people to pay him to sit around and read something. If he\’d actually rehearsed and directed a stage adaptation of Empire, now THAT would\’ve been a fun little experiment. But this is just an overrated pompous hack trying to get people to pay him to sit with and have much more talented people read out a script that already has a pretty great (and I\’ll add much cheaper) version out on DVD (or VHS if you\’re one of those Star Wars purists, and hates all that added extra nonesense). Sidenote: If the money is actually going to charity, I commend that, but still. It\’s people reading for 2 and a half hours.
*my suggestion is
Dear upset people: it\’s a bunch of people reading a script out loud, for fun. I\’m pretty sure it\’s not that big of a deal. My suggesting is, if it bothers you so much, do something constructive, like stage your own live reading of it the way YOU think it should be. Or I guess you could just complain about it, if that really makes you happier. Personally I think this sounds like a blast. But then again I tend to like things that are fun, interesting experiments.
The point of this Mark is for Reitman to not only shit out shitty films of his own, but to take that shit and smear it all over the classics, so that he can help himself feel better over his lack of any talent whatsoever.
Whoever sneaks a video of Jessica Alba and Ellen Page kissing will create the 11th hour media event of 2014. I don\’t make the rules.
Han Solo as a mousey angry obnoxious lesbian….yeah, that sounds about right 😉 Reitman does look like a young George Lucas.
What\’s the point of this?